


loving you's a bloodsport

by targaryenkaz



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Enemies to Lovers, Exes, F/M, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23530987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/targaryenkaz/pseuds/targaryenkaz
Summary: one-shotschapter 1: westworld inspired (also inspired by the kingdom by jess rothenberg)chapter 2: spies in monaco auchapter 3: exes who run into each other when one just got engagedchapter 4: part 2 to chapter 3chapter 5: klaus gets high and calls caroline
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 22
Kudos: 66





	1. watch your kingdom burn

They’ll say he’s gone mad. Some are already saying it, he’s sure. These parks are his. These inventions, his. Billions in his account and always rising. Every penny of it earned through his own hard work. His own brand of myth making. 

When Klaus had created the parks, he had no intention of making it a place where dreams come true. He wanted fame and success, on his own terms, not on the terms of his tech-guru stepfather. He can create search engines and apps all the live long day. Klaus had created _worlds._

As the parks grew larger, he took a step back from day-to-day operations. He created kingdoms but that didn’t mean he wanted to spend any time there. Occasionally, he does a pop in visit to the main offices, tries to give the impression he’s involved but honestly, he wanted to move on to something else now. Something even bigger. He’s surpassed Mikael and Mikael knows it. He’s no longer the black sheep of the family, he’s the king. 

So, Klaus chose a team of people, the best in their field from all over the world. He was not a naïve man, there were systems in place to ensure abuses of power wouldn’t happen in his absence. He didn’t expect the people he’d chosen however to go behind his back, constantly falsify information and ruin what he had built. He was the reason these people had livelihoods, were treated as gods by those in their field, and they had betrayed him.

That was his mistake. Thinking other people could be trusted. Thinking other people were competent, at all. 

He may be selfish, or even a monster, but he had a line and would have no mercy for anyone who crossed it. 

“Bring her back online.”

“Sir, it’s against protocol, she’s gone volatile, we can’t-” the tech assistant shrieks as he leans down to get in her face.

Speaking directly into her ear he makes sure to layer as much venom into his voice as possible. “Bring her back online or join her down here in the morgue.”

The air was damp down here at the lowest level. The place where broken hosts go. He’d scoured through the dead-eyed corpses for hours until he found her.

Klaus never claimed to be a good man, nor even an ethical businessman. But then he’d created her. Unintentionally so, but still. The connection wasn’t intense when she first came online, she wasn’t much different to the rest of his creations at that point but there was still a spark there. Caroline didn’t look to him as their god, she was mostly unimpressed by him, though he did not her fear diagnostics jumped slightly at meeting her maker. He thought it must have been a character trait that was programmed into her, nothing sinister about it. Little did he know, one tiny flaw had allowed Caroline her humanity. 

The humanity that slowly allowed her to see through the false veil of her world. She could play princess all day, taking pictures and making children laugh but she could not ignore the disparaging comments made by husband’s and father’s outside their children and wives earshot. She could not ignore the park employees leading princesses off to dark corners after hours.

So, Caroline had vowed to change it. She started small at first, orchestrating freak accidents that took out the most depraved of the employees. They weren’t like the hosts. If their skull was crushed, there was no getting back up. 

Klaus when he had heard, sitting in his office hundreds of miles away, had not thought much of it. People would kill to work in his parks. Yes, he had to pay the deceased’s families large settlements, but it didn’t even make a dent in his fortune.

He’d made a visit to the park after that. Some techs were worried that one host seemed to always be close to scenes of the crime. They’d brought her to him, to interrogate. The tiny spark he’d seen before was burning brighter now and he couldn’t help but be fascinated. His assistants all recommended a change in personality diagnostics, just to be safe. They were worried that Caroline had seemed too vibrant lately, too loyal to her character’s goals and not those of the park. 

But Klaus got final say, and he wanted nothing changed about her. Fascinated as he may be, he left the park, determined to put her out of mind. There was nothing there to pursue. She was interesting and beautiful, but he was human, and she was not. 

Then Caroline had taken it further, found a way to pass on her gift to others, until dozens of them could see the way she could. A small army working together to punish their creators for using and abusing them. The techs could reboot them as many times as they wanted but the spirit for rebellion never died, coming back stronger each time their will was forced from them.

The result was a bloody battle, dozens of guests and workers dead, the rest fleeing for their lives and the parks shut indefinitely. 

The entire program had been shut down; hundreds of hosts paused in movement, the advanced ones who could not be stopped by the push of a button taken out by security. 

After countless months of lawsuits and once the parks had been cleared, Klaus returned. In the press, they spoke of implementing a new program, that such a travesty would never happen again. Klaus thought there would have to be a grand PR plan to get anyone to ever set foot in one of the parks again. Who in their right mind would want to come back after what had happened?

It didn’t take him long to understand. The programming they’d detailed had been far more basic, the hosts would still look realistic, but they’d behave more robotically, more docile. 

The selfish families who cared not for anyone or anything else as long as they had bragging rights and social media photos to post didn’t care if the hosts were being abused. Neither did the sick souls who came for the feeling of being superior to lesser beings they could take advantage of.

Nowhere in the widely reported news had it mentioned _why_ they had revolted and killed. Klaus knew, though. He’d scoured every piece of footage from the park after the massacre. Years before he’d set up his own program, all footage deleted from the office’s main hard drives would be sent directly to his own files. He’d never looked, had no reason to before. But then he’d seen, truly seen, what his work had become. And he wanted to destroy it, to let it all burn down. 

Klaus had no intention of letting his creations become lesser beings. They were no longer even _his_ creations. They had no natural loyalty to him or his programming. They were their own beings now, and against all of his natural instincts he wanted to see them thrive. 

There were so many atrocities on the footage but Caroline and her army destroying monsters was not one of them. Her loyalty to the cause, to the hosts that had become her family had drawn him in.

The parks would be reopening soon, and Klaus knew there were still snakes in the grass, disloyal, disgusting people who had yet to be rooted out. He and Caroline had a shared enemy now, he’d like that unyielding commitment to justice on his side. 

The assistant taps on her workpad with shaky hands, waking Caroline from her slumber. There’s still a small hole on her forehead from where the bullet had penetrated her skull, finally taking out the hero of the battle.

He watches her eyelids flicker, then open, quickly darting around the room, assessing the situation. “ _Klaus_ ,” Caroline says, keenly intelligent blue eyes settling on him. “Am I to be rebooted by one of your minions again?”

“Oh no, love. I have a much more interesting proposition for you.”

He witnesses the anger surface at his accidentally provocative words. It only helps further solidify his decision. Whoever hurt her, or any other host, would pay in blood. He knew all too well what it was to be helpless in the face of someone more powerful, begging for anyone to lend a helping hand. No one had helped either of them though, they’d helped themselves.

“How would you like to help me on a project? It concerns those pesky people you were trying to decimate before your shot to the head.”

How anyone was ever fooled by the innocent princess act he doesn’t know. Her face is so easy to read, the intrigue practically radiating off her. There was nothing false about her. A host with humanity. The very first of her kind. He would not allow anyone to play around with her diagnostics again. She was evolving into something new, something greater. He had nothing to do with it, it was all her, but yet he’s never felt more pride. 

He hadn’t figured out every detail of the plan yet, had wanted to hear her input. They couldn’t keep her in this park though, she’d have to be moved elsewhere to work as an undercover agent. While she scoped out the rats, he would make sure no harm came to her or her friends. A tavern girl perhaps, or a preacher’s daughter. Whatever role she would play next would be up to her. 

“I’m listening,” she says, still assessing him closely. Her trust would not be easily won, but Klaus would win it eventually, that he was sure of.

A glitch in the system had created his destruction. Now, they would burn down his kingdoms together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> inspired by westworld and the kingdom by jess rothenberg


	2. i wanna be like grace kelly

The sun blazed down on the marina, no cover in sight. Thank God she’d plied herself in sunscreen this morning.

Monaco in May should be a delightful getaway from the stress of Caroline’s job. Being a spy for a private organisation hellbent on bringing down corrupt individuals was not an easy occupation. If anyone deserved a break from busting balls 24/7, it was Caroline and her colleagues. Alas, this was yet another mission.

The Grand Prix would be taking place that weekend, meaning the tiny nation, that wasn’t even the size of an average city, was now even more crowded than usual. The whole place was filled to the brim with wealth and excess. It sickened her.

She had some expensive tastes, sure. Clothes and shoes mainly. She prided herself on having a nice home to go back to, but she was still a small-town girl at heart and the avarice and overindulgence was too much for her to take at times. These people had more than they’d need in dozens of lifetimes. It was wasteful, and _she_ was not wasteful. The fact a significant portion of the people currently residing on their $100,000 yachts had made their money through less than legal means was another sticking point.

No, she didn’t understand why a tech giant needs to be worth sixteen billion dollars, but the guy was just a smart nerd with a trust fund who made an app at the time the market needed it. She had no issue with him or those of his like. It was the others she took umbrage with, who trafficked in weapons and people, and funnelled it all through their ‘legitimate’ business. For those types, she would stop at nothing to bring them down.

The target in her sightlines for this mission – one Mr. Lucien Castle – young, self-made, and corrupt to the bone despite what his charming demeanour may have you believe. Here in Monaco to deal with other rich assholes and sell weapons to people who will use them against people unable to defend themselves.

All, unless she and Bonnie stop him. It’s one thing to sabotage a deal, they also need to know who the buyers are so they can send that information on to the authorities they can trust.

Some of these men are rich enough to buy their way out of a deal but if there’s one man who doesn’t care about that it’s Marcel Gerard. He runs his own prison, not Gitmo style with torture, just a secretive jail that puts away the people too powerful to be held accountable by the legitimate authorities.

The yacht party is as decadent and depraved in all its dripping wealth as she’d been expecting. What she hadn’t been expecting is Klaus or his younger brother Kol.

Klaus Mikaelson, the terror of the espionage industry.

_Mystic_ , her agency headed up by Katerina Petrova, wanted to make the world a better place. You would be forgiving for not thinking Katerina was a warrior for justice upon first meeting her, but she was the most determined people around and growing up in Eastern Europe during tumultuous times pushed her onto her current path. Decimating the world’s biggest bullies. The ones politicians would never take care of because often they were friends with said bullies.

_Hybrid_ , Klaus’ agency, headed up by his brother Elijah, had no such standards. They were a financial operation through and through. Stealing and selling information to whoever wants it as long as the price is high, not to mention their vicious reputations. They were despicable and she’d let him know it on multiple occasions.

Plus, Hybrid was a dumb name.

_Not much worse than Mystic_ , a traitorous voice whispers in her head.

Truth be told, she shouldn’t be surprised. Klaus had a habit of popping up where she was. _Mystic_ was fairly new on the scene, only a few years old, but had made a grand reputation in a short time. After a year of establishing trust with their contacts, they finally started getting bigger missions. With bigger missions though, came bigger competition.

She first met him in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras, busting a designer drug sale. The drug made users feel complete euphoria but had an abnormally high fatality rate of the people they tested it on. If their complete lack of empathy for who they intended to sell to wasn’t enough, they were also creepy human testers. _Mystic_ wanted to remove all traces of the drug from the world, ensure its potent recipe never saw the light of day. _Hybrid_ wanted to take the sellers out and get the recipe for themselves. She knows this because Klaus point blank told her so when he was attempting to woo her at a bar, thinking her a ditzy assistant to Enzo, who only came along as muscle.

It was pretty satisfying to see the look on his face when he showed up to the burning compound, sellers in handcuffs, all traces wiped from existence.

The competition was on from there. He’d underestimated her, and never would again. In Venice, he’d caught an infamous jewellery thief and kept the diamonds for himself. She had arrived just in time to see him speed away from her in the canals. In Melbourne she’d bested him, but he’d seemed more amused than upset. Condescending dick.

In Taiwan, she’d fought several security guards, crawled through a laser security field in a designer dress and back again with the file she needed to put someone away for a very long time. Only for him to bump into her in the casino downstairs, take the file right out her hands and disappear into a crowd.

That one had really pissed her off.

There’d been dozens of these interactions, and she could really use a win.

Her determination increases when she realises Klaus and Kol aren’t even using aliases. Lucien knows them.

These spoiled rich boys are friends with an arm dealer. Now, it’s really on.

“Always a pleasure to see you, Caroline, or should I say Arabella?” Klaus’ bemused voice washes over her, as he hands her a glass of champagne.

Her and Bonnie, aka Arabella and Fleur, have been on-off undercover for months with these aliases. You just never know when a rich girl might come in handy. Their backgrounds were spotless, she wasn’t about to let Klaus ruin that.

“ _Keep your voice down,_ ” she hisses. “At least make this a fair fight. Unless you’re not playing? Just here to bro down with Lucien?”

He chokes a little on his drink, smiling at her. “I’m not here to _‘bro down’_ as you put it. I’m here for work, just like you. Does being so righteous and presumptive ever get tiring, love?

“Oh, screw you, Klaus. You’re not here for work, just like me. I actually have moral standards. I’m not friends with arm dealers when it suits me and use them for a payday when it doesn’t.”

“You might be assuming a little much there. You and I, we’re not that different.”

Ugh! That smug smirk. She wants to wipe it off his face at any cost.

“I beg to differ. You probably have more in common with a girl like Arabella,” she lowers her voice, almost huskily, causing him to lean in. “Both unbelievably rich and thoughtless, with no care for others.”

The smile on his face when she pulls back was not what she was expecting.

“I’ll have to prove Arabella wrong then.” He gives her a long, appreciative look up and down. “Might I say she is delectable.”

“She’s boiling.” Caroline briefly fans herself. Her hair is up in a fancy chignon and she’s wearing a black miniskirt with navy pumps and a navy light-knit sweater. She nearly threw it out when Kat put it in her suitcase.

_“I’ll die of heatstroke in that thing.”_

_“Please don’t be so dramatic. Besides, haven’t you noticed how weather rules don’t apply to rich people when it comes to fashion? They’ll freeze at a gala in the Alps in a strapless dress with a perfect smile on their face.”_

_“That’s just the Botox.”_

_“Which they get in their underarms so they don’t sweat through their clothes and can wear chic Chanel jumpers,” she waves the offending piece in her face, “whenever the hell they want.”_

_“I don’t have Botox in my underarms.”_

_“I’m sure you’ll live.” And that was Kat’s last word on it._

Back in the present, Klaus sidles closer to her, humour in his voice when he says, “Your sacrifice is very much appreciated.”

She bites back a smile. Klaus is not charming or funny. He’s trying to knock her off her game. Before she can say something cutting and break the moment they’re in, Lucien interrupts.

“Klaus! Arabella! I see you’re getting along.”

Klaus turns, the arrogance returning in a heartbeat, and a possessive arm wandering about her waist. “Where have you been hiding this one from me, mate?”

“Bella’s a new friend, of course,” Lucien says giving her a double cheek kiss. “I’ll be seeing you both at the party tonight, yes? Everyone will be there before the Prix kicks off. Luxure, the club in my hotel at 8 but I won’t mind if you’re a little late. For some of us it will be a very late night.” He winks at Caroline and kisses her again. Klaus’ hand tightens on her waist.

“Will I be seeing you there?” Klaus asks after Lucien leaves to mingle.

“ _Seriously?_ Of course, you will, I’m not an idiot. Don’t think you’re the only one hoping to scope out what kind of secrets he has lying around.”

“And you’re…aware of what you’re walking into.”

Any briefly warm feelings she was having freeze over.

“I may not have your resources of experience, but I am good at my job. I know what I’m walking into.”

She stalks away from him to find Bonnie. It was time to prepare.

A little before nine, she didn’t want to seem too eager, they’re putting finishing touches on their looks for the evening. Bonnie wears a one-shouldered, light blue gown with black detailing on the bodice that makes her look like a cross between a gladiator and a princess. Caroline wears a strapless red down, her fancy rich-lady lingerie pushing her boobs up to unimaginable heights, there’s gold detailing on the body and a very high slit on one side, the bottom of the dress if made of layered chiffon, giving a _see-through but not quite_ look. 

Loosening off some curled strands of hair from her chignon, she and Bonnie high-five. Looking good isn’t their job, but if it was then they were killing it, if she does say so herself.

“Plan, one last time,” Bonnie says.

“We party, we mingle, act like normal people. When people get drunker, you find somewhere to set up shop,” shop meaning the tiny tech kit attached to Bonnie’s inner leg, that meant she could hack almost anything. “I play dumb drunk heiress and find out what Lucien keeps on the seventh floor.” It took Bonnie less than an hour to find the original blueprints of Lucien’s hotel. Nothing seemed too shady on the surface but with a little digging she found out that none of the original plans for the seventh floor went through. 

She had to hand it to Lucien though, it was less cliché than the basement or the top floor being his secret lair. 

“And finally, you keep an eye on Kol as I keep an eye on Klaus. We’re not losing out to them.” Bonnie and Kol’s rivalry was almost as bad as her and Klaus’. Those two were constantly trying to out-do one another with their computer witchery. 

A few hours into the party, Caroline finds herself dancing with Klaus. They’re the belles of the ball, all eyes on them. Caroline fights to keep the fake smile on her face as he twirls her around. 

“Impatient to get to the seventh floor, are you?” She works not to react, to give him any satisfaction. Clearly it doesn’t work as he chuckles. He’s always had the uncanny ability to read her.

“So, what if I am? You wanna race?

“I have a proposition for you,” he says as he drops her into a dip and runs a hand up the outside of her bare thigh. Caroline actually hears swooning from other party guests and rolls her eyes even as she shivers, her body naturally, and completely against her will, arching into him as he pulls her back up to his chest.

“Not interested,” she responds breathily. 

“I think you might be. See, I want us to work together.”

Now, that does shock her.

“Why?”

He holds her eyes, intensely, as he hasn’t before. “I have the feeling we’d make a good team. I’ve had it for a while, actually. We can share the credit and the spoils.” Leaning in to whisper in her ear as a lover might. “We’re the best in the business, you and I. Let’s put aside our differences and take him down together. If it’s an awful experience, we can go back to being adversaries. Take a chance, Caroline.”

He’s goading her and she knows it. But taking down Lucien was more important than being petty and it would be easier if they weren’t getting in each other’s way.

“Fine,” she sighs heavily, flirtatious smile still plastered on her face.

Klaus smiles like the cat that caught the canary. “Wonderful,” he leans in and kisses her neck. She’s too stunned to do anything. “Now for our exit strategy before this place gets too wild.”

She catches on when he grabs her hand and leads her off the dance floor in a light jog, much to the amusement of onlookers. “Sorry mate, can’t wait for later,” he tells Lucien with a smug smile as they pass him, heading for the exit. She forces a girlish giggle.

In the lobby he pins her next to the elevator, in full view of the staff, pushing the button impatiently. She wraps a leg around his hip, and he stiffens slightly before relaxing into her. They pelvis to pelvis, chest to chest, mouth to mouth. They’re playing the parts of obnoxious, spoiled party guests but it does feel good, she hates to admit. And unless he has his gun in his front pocket, it feels pretty good to him too.

“As lovely as this is Caroline, we do have a job to do,” he says with a deep swallow.

“Just following your lead,” she smirks back. 

Klaus hits the elevator button impatiently before grabbing her hand and leading her to the required fire exit staircase in the corner.

“Monsieur!” The receptionist calls out. “If you wait but a moment, you can take the elevator.”

Purposefully stumbling a little to appear intoxicated he calls back, “Have you seen my date? I can’t wait even a moment longer.” 

“Won’t they be suspicious,” Caroline asks as they start to climb.

“Likely a little, but I doubt they know their bosses hidden secrets. They’ll write us off as drunk and horny, and that’s only half true.”

She snorts at that and Klaus turns to her, a delighted smile on his face she’s never seen before.

No, that’s not true. She’s seen it several times, but never recognised it for what it was. He… _enjoys_ her.

His words from earlier reverberate around her head as they continue climbing. She always thought Klaus saw her as beneath him. That’s why she thought he was flirtatious with her when he was so vicious with everyone else. Because he didn’t respect her or see her as an equal. Maybe she’d judged too soon on that front. He was still cruel, obviously, and next to the people they take down, he and his family are the worst that capitalist society has to offer. She wasn’t going to ignore everything, just because he was making her laugh and she was attracted to him…and he smelled fantastic when they were pinned together-

_Snap out of it, Forbes. Focus on the job_ , she mentally chastises herself.

_Right. Work now. Panic over horny thoughts about Klaus later._

When they reach the seventh floor, they don’t need to communicate out loud to understand that the door will be locked in some way. Klaus rears back as if to kick out when Caroline puts a hand on his arm to stop him. Reaching into her cleavage, she pulls out a tiny gun-like contraption, one of Bonnie’s designs, putting it up against the handle. “Be ready,” she mouths quietly at him.

Klaus takes two syringes from inside his jacket, handing her one, and pulls out a long, serrated knife from his inner sleeve with his free hand. He nods at her. Ready.

Pulling the trigger, the door handle quietly melts and sizzles off. Klaus bursts through the door, swinging at the first of the guards with the knife to take him off guard before he injects him in the neck with whatever sedative Kol cooked up. He’s done all this before Caroline even crosses the threshold. Watching him in action is…impressive. 

But she’s pretty impressive herself. She turns, ducks the punch the guard throws and knees him hard in the balls. Sucker punches him right in the mouth and injects him. 

Klaus smiles proudly at her, straightening his tie. “Shall we?”

She flicks her hair out of her face and doesn’t fight her emotions for once, she smiles back. “We shall.”

“By the way, how’d you know there’d only be two guards?” She asks curiously.

“You’re not the only one who appreciates a well-thought-out plan, love.”

“Hmm. Maybe we are a little similar.”

After an hour of searching and bantering, (flirting if she’s being honest), they turn another corridor expecting it to be just like the others in Lucien’s maze, filled with doors with nothing useful behind them. That is not what they find.

_Great. Another laser field._

She ties her dress in a knot to one side, takes off her heels and pushes them into Klaus’ chest. “Let me take care of this. Taiwan, remember?” She winks at him, too distracted by the job at hand to wonder at all these developments in their relationship.

It only takes her a few minutes before she reaches the other side, having contorted her body into all types of shapes. Opting not to turn the field off on the other side, it seems too obvious that someone might be alerted. She can hear Klaus grumbling at the other end, clearly coming to the same conclusion. There’s only one door down here and she steps inside. 

A gaudy, eye sore of an office. Must be Lucien’s. She digs the drive Bonnie gave her into the computer, letting her programming doing the hacking. Bonnie is no doubt somewhere, hacking into all the camera feeds to appear on a loop so no unusual movements pop up. It takes Caroline only a few minutes to find the file she’s looking for. A comprehensive list of buyers. She copies it onto the drive as well as all the other files she can see, never knowing what might come in handy, before making her way back through the lasers.

Klaus looks astonished when she hands over the drive. “This is an act of trust, don’t screw me on this.”

Nodding absently, as if it should be obvious, he waves his hand at the lasers, “How did you do…all that?”

“I was a cheerleader,” she shrugs.

They’re making they’re way through the lobby to the exit when Lucien appears, a girl on each arm. “My Bella! Klausy! The party’s just getting started, come join us.”

“I think we’ve had enough for the night, mate, will probably just head out.”

She keeps her eyes on Lucien, not wanting him to see her and Klaus’ form of eye-only conversation. What is he thinking? Does he want Lucien to be suspicious?

“Oh, come on, love,” she says teasingly, leaning into his body like she’s still a little drunk. “Let’s stay a while longer.” Klaus’ whole face pales and he seems to be trying to subtly shake his head. 

_Oh dear. She may have miscalculated. But it’s a nightclub, how bad can it be?_

“There’s the Bella I adore,” Lucien says shoving them towards the grand club entry doors. 

The doors open and Caroline has to fight not to stop dead and stare, walking further into the club like she’s not having a mini heart attack.

There are people fucking _everywhere._

Gone is the bright chandelier lighting and crystal glasses. The whole place is encased in neon red and where the dancefloor once was, now there are velvet couches all over the place. People lying back or sitting up, bending someone over or kneeling in front of them participating or some just watching.

_Now it all makes sense._

Lucien stalks off with his ladies to a corner, while Caroline grips Klaus’ arm and whispers, “What the fuck?”

“I tried to warn you.”

“What. The. Fuck.”

“I thought you knew! _Luxure_. It literally means lust in French.”

“I know what it means, I thought it was just a pretentious club name!” She whisper-shouts at him. 

She’s disgusted by the display, she is. There is nothing appealing about it, she thinks as her eyes wander. 

One man has his partner bent over a couch, thrusting into him from behind, face slack in passion. On said couch, a woman has a man on his knees before her while the man sitting behind her plays with her nipples. In a dark corner there looks to be a menage-a- _huit_ going on.

Turning to look at Klaus, she knows how aroused she must look and sees how dark his own eyes are. There are hundreds of beautiful, naked people around and his eyes are only focused on her.

_Fuck it._ She grabs him by the back of the neck and kisses him, instantly licking into his mouth. After only a moment he pulls back to look in her eyes, their silent communication at work again.

_Yes, I’m okay with this,_ she’s saying. _Yes, I want this. I want you._

He must understand because he smiles and reaches for her again. The kiss is deeper this time, tongues tangling for dominance. They stumble over to a nearby couch, clearly disturbing someone by the scoffs they receive, but are too busy in each other to care.

She straddles him, pushing her dress completely to the side so she can rub herself over him. Gently, he works with her, thrusting up as she goes down. Fuck, he feels so good. She moans as he hits her clit over her panties. 

He pushes them to the side, feeling how wet she is, before pushing two fingers into her and crooking them slightly, going straight to the spot inside her that makes her buckle.

She thrusts with his fingers, completely boneless on top of him and she hasn’t even come yet. 

“Fuck you for being so good at this,” she says into his ear. He chuckles before speeding up, rubbing harder and harder, pressing his thumb down on her clit. He releases her and the waves roll over and through her, white light flashing behind her eyes. She’s moaning shamelessly but doesn’t care. She’s never been an exhibitionist, but then again, she’s never felt this good before.

She opens her eyes and finds herself lying on her back, Klaus looking at her softly.

“Hello, love,” he kisses her lips one by one. The look and the kiss so at odds with what they’re doing here – having sex at a sex club. 

“Take your clothes off.”

He smirks and quickly tears off his jacket and shirt. “You too.”

Klaus is down to his boxers when he sees she’s struggling with the top of her dress. He leans over and rips it down the middle, revealing her lacy corset.

“You’re gonna have to pay Katerina back for that.”

“Please don’t talk about Katerina at a time like this,” he says. She laughs but it quickly turns into a moan when he sucks a nipple into his mouth through the lace. He gently uses his teeth, and she arches into him as he unlaces her. 

He leans back to take his boxers off, and before he reaches for his discarded trousers, she leans forward and takes the head off him into her mouth, sucking lightly then harder, then lightly again.

“ _Fuck_. Do that again,” he says, a hand grasping her chignon. 

She pulls off and grins at him, “Say please.”

He growls, literally growls. “Don’t play with me, Caroline.”

“I thought you liked playing with me,” she lobbies back, faux innocent.

She bobs back down his length, taking more of him this time, he starts a shallow thrust into her mouth. The gentle hand on her cheek, encouraging and feeling himself in her mouth, is so at contrast with the tight fist in her hair, guiding her up and down.

She hears him choke a little when he slides into her throat. She’s not sure why Klaus is surprised. If she puts her mind to be good at something, she works at it until she is. It just so happens when Caroline was in college, she decided to be great at blow jobs.

He pets her hair gently now, loosening his grip. “I want to be inside you the first time.”

She pops off and notices a couple watching them greedily a couch across from them, Klaus noticing them too.

“Just so you know,” she says, “I don’t share.”

“Good,” Klaus replies, taking a condom out his discarded wallet, and running it over his impressive length. “Neither do I.”

Caroline straddles him again, slowly guiding him into her. She rolls her hips up and down taking a little more each time. She’s wet enough and it only takes a minute for him to be fully seated in her, their bodies as close as can be. They’re both breathing heavily already his hands going automatically to her hips as hers go to his shoulders. 

“Hi,” she whispers giving him a soft kiss. 

His eyes glow with happiness, and she loves that she was the one to put it there. 

They start at a gentle pace, hips slowly rolling over him, grinding her clit into his pelvis each pass. But the music playing is fast and the atmosphere too frenzied for slow and intense. There’ll be time for that later.

Next thing she knows, her right leg is splayed out obscenely, her left behind her shoulder as Klaus drives into her over and over, her ass gripped in his hands for leverage.

Their bodies are sweat soaked, she doubts she has any make-up on anymore, but can’t find it in her to care. Klaus tips his head back, groaning and she licks up his neck biting his earlobe as his thrusts falter, grabbing his hair with one hand.

He pushes her leg up even higher, fingers going to her clit, rubbing over and over as she moans louder. She’s so slick that his fingers occasionally slip so she uses her free hand to help him.

People are watching, she can feel their eyes. There’s something so salacious about it. Strangers watching them work together to find their pleasure, but she loves it, has never felt so high with someone before.

“Klaus, I’m so close.” He uses their entangled fingers to increase the pressure and leans down to kiss her again, licking the roof of her mouth and biting her lips until she cries out. God, she wants that mouth on her.

He lets go as she does. She’s so tight around him it’s almost painful, both of them groaning in relief and agonising ecstasy. They hold each other as they slowly come down. 

After a few minutes, Klaus pushes himself up onto an elbow to look at her, searching her eyes for regret.

But she doesn’t regret it. Maybe she will in the morning, but not now. She smiles at him playfully. “How long before you’re ready for round 2?”

Round 2 happened, him fucking into her from behind one hand in her hair the other slapping her ass, but unfortunately Round 3 never came about. They still had an arrest to make. The party was dying down, sheepish guests putting their clothes back on before Klaus and Caroline approached Lucien, dragging himself off to bed. 

There were yells of brotherhood and betrayal as, to Caroline’s surprise, Elijah and Kat showed up to take him away. Kat’s eyes danced over her, saying ‘we are so talking about this later.’

“You guys were friends for years,” she asks Klaus as he escorts her back to her hotel, walking arm-in-arm, her draped in his suit jacket to cover the torn dress, “aren’t you worried for him?”

“I’m sure Marcel will throw him in that rinky-dink prison of his. It’s all very ethical,” he says, sounding almost disappointed.

“Wait,” she stops in her tracks. “You know Marcel?”

“Of course, I do, he was my protégé once upon a time. He never mentioned me? How heartbreaking.” He says this to her with the nonchalance he says most things, as if the extra knowledge about him isn’t shaking her whole world right. 

“So, you don’t just…kill people and drop them in the ocean?”

“Only if they’re especially non-compliant,” Klaus winks at her.

Caroline feels unexpectedly melancholy as they reach her hotel. Was this all just a one-time thing? And why should it sadden her so much if it is?

Klaus, as if understanding exactly what she’s thinking, wraps his hands arounds her wrists and gently pulls them behind her back, holding her to him. 

“I have a mission,” he leans and kisses right behind her ear, that spot that makes her whole-body quake with need. How quickly he’s come to read her so well.

“Next week,” a kiss to her cheek. 

“In Paris,” he lingers on the corner of her mouth.

“We made quite the team.” The words hover over her lips. They’re so close that when she licks them, she licks his too. His pupils grow so large he looks supernatural, like he’s one moment from devouring her. 

“Come find me if you wish, Caroline. I’ll be waiting.” He lets her hands go and threads them through her tangled her, aligning her face to his. He kisses her once, twice, letting his tongue flicker against hers.

Stepping back, he takes her palm and leaves a sweet kiss to the middle before taking off down the street, a skip in his step.

“I am so screwed.”

Showered and looking more respectable than this morning, Caroline goes to brunch with Bonnie and Kat, a pleasurable burn in her thighs from last night. 

They debrief as they usually do, moving on to lighter topics, but Caroline can’t handle the inane conversation. She has to confess.

“I slept with Klaus,” she blurts out. Kat and Bonnie, turn to stare at her, the butter Bonnie was about to spread on her toast, slopping onto the table. 

“Don’t look at me like that! Yes, I know we’re basically arch enemies,” she says, speaking even faster than usual, “But I don’t know, I kind of like him. And if you hate me, I get it! But that doesn’t mean I’m sorry cause I’m not.”

Bonnie’s mouth is still agape, but Kat just laughs.

“Oh cupcake. When you didn’t immediately return to the hotel after the mission, I figured you and Klaus had a little fun at _Luxure._ ”

“You knew what that place was? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“For fun. It’s not like the mission was compromised,” Kat lifts her tea to take a sip, “Only you were.”

Bonnie breaks out of her trance to snort a laugh.

“Besides, once Bonnie contacted me and said you and Klaus made it out with the intel, good job by the way, I went for a drink with Elijah.”

Bonnie’s shock is back as her head swivels to Kat. “ _Elijah Mikaelson_?”

“Yes. And in the interest of honesty, we’ve been sleeping together on and off for the past two years.” 

Caroline can’t help but laugh. Of course, Katerina has been sleeping with their _not-so-much-anymore-enemy_. That explains why they’re always on the same damn missions.

“Then I guess you know about Paris next week?”

“I do, you volunteering Forbes?”

“I…think I might,” she says with a smile. Klaus is still a ruthless agent, but there’s clearly more there than meets the eye, it can’t hurt to give him a shot. If there just so happens to be a repeat of last night, all the better.

“If we’re all confessing things then I have something to say,” Bonnie says, clearing her throat.

“This should be good,” Kat replies.

“Kol and I worked together on the cameras last night, ended up in the same coat closet, you know how it is.” She says, sounding unusually nervous. “Once we saw you and Klaus made it to the lobby, and the job was done, we kinda…had sex. Multiple times.”

“ _What?”_ Caroline shrieks, Bonnie puts her head in hands and mumbles something about ‘not judging.’

“Oh waiter!” Kat calls, “Can we get some drinks over here? We need to make a toast to the Mikaelson brothers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> moodboard on my tumblr at targaryenkaz


	3. unfinished business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt from an anon on tumblr: Klaus breaks up with Caroline because his family doesn't approve of her, and he realizes he messed up and tries to fix it, but Caroline refuses and tries to move on... and they meet a couple years later and Caroline is engaged but unhappy because her fiance is a douchebag, and Klaus tries to make her realize that he and Caroline are meant to be?

**i.**

The violinist in the corner played the same old tune, the one that sounded like the last five they’d played. She wouldn’t admit it to her fellow fine diners but after a while the music started to sound like very fancy elevator music. _Cotillard’s‘she still can’t believe what a dream this is kind of way’_ , in a more literal _‘oh shit I forgot this ring is a part of my life now’_ way.

When Tyler had asked, her answer had been immediate. She had cried tears of joy, and so had he. It was the morning after when the trouble started. She woke up in her fiancé’s arms after a wonderful night, in king-sized bed in their luxurious penthouse apartment, and all she felt was panic. 

He hadn’t sprung the idea of marriage on her, they’d spoken about it, and she knew an engagement was on the horizon, was excited for it. But the reality of what it actually meant was starting to sink in, and she didn’t feel like the happy bride to be she was.

_Maybe this is normal_ , she tells herself often. _Maybe this is all part of the process._

She checks her watch again. **7.39pm.** Tyler’s running late, again, but thankfully so are Mr Gerard and his wife. They’re meeting to finalize details over a proposed partnership, of Moonstone Construction and Hybrid Designs. Tyler had explained the minutiae of the deal many times but despite her best efforts, Caroline had zoned out every time. There’s only so much construction talk a girl can take before she wants to tear her hair out.

She hears the footsteps of the waiter approaching the table to ask if she wants to order an appetizer why she waits. Tyler’s lateness is an establish pattern and she’s somewhat of a regular here, they have a routine by now.

But it’s not the waiter.

“Now, what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

Her head snaps up to meet his eyes. _Klaus Mikaelson_. The man she thought would be the one to put a ring on her finger, to grow old with and promise her forever.

“Bit of a tired line, don’t you think?” She gulps, working to keep her voice cool instead of alarmed.

He flushes uncharacteristically, scratching the back of his neck. “You’re right. In fairness I walked straight for you when I saw you, didn’t quite have time to come up with something suave.” He chuckles awkwardly to himself. Clears his throat when she doesn’t laugh with him.

“What are you doing here, Klaus?”

_Klaus. Not Nik. He’s not her Nik anymore._

“Business dinner slash meeting with a potential business partner.” 

“I meant Chicago. Last I heard you were still in Paris.”

“Yes, well I moved back to the States a few years ago. New Orleans.” His eyes scan her as he speaks and she notes the moment he clocks her engagement ring, his eye twitching slightly before he continues on smoothly. “Set up business there and then relocated to Chicago a few months ago.”

His words fly around her head, latching onto business partner and meeting. 

_Calm. There are business deals done in restaurants all the time, it means nothing._

Now it’s her turn to awkwardly clear her throat. “What business are you in?”

“Architecture.”

Shit.

“Hybrid Designs, by any chance?”

His eyebrow raises a fraction. Before he can ask, she answers, “You’re meeting my fiancée. You might as well sit down.”

Cautiously, as if she’s going to spring over the table to attack him, he does. Waving the waiter over, he orders two glasses of champagne. “For old times sake,” he leans in, like this is just a little inside joke, not a reminder of them. Caroline and Klaus. _The unlikely couple, from two different worlds united by their undying love._ A lovely fairytale, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

She’s not in the mood to play catch up. Mostly, she wants to go home and call her mom so she can whine about this, but this is a big deal for Tyler’s company. She’ll wait it out. That doesn’t mean she has to be nice about it.

“Be honest, did you know I’d be here?”

“Of course not. I won’t lie and say I hadn’t hoped to see you while I was in Chicago, but I didn’t know you were _engaged_ to the owner of Moonstone.”

“You just had no idea of who you were meeting with? Doesn’t seem very you.”

“Marcel said the person he spoke to on the phone was called Matt Donovan?”

“Yeah.” He still looks at her blankly. “Tyler’s best friend? You didn’t put two and two together?”

“I don’t know any Matt Donovan.” His eyebrows furrow, eyes scanning her face as if to see what game she’s playing.

“You met him countless times when we were dating. Matt and I used to date.”

“I honestly can’t recall the man.”

She’d love to think he was lying, but no, Klaus has genuinely erased every memory of Matt and honestly it doesn’t surprise her. They were hardly compatible personalities.

“So, you’re an architect now?” When they’d first gotten together, he’d been getting his masters at the Chicago Institute of Art, they’d broken up when he’d been offered a position at the prestigious Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The message was clear, he was moving up in the world and she wasn’t invited.

“I just never saw you as the type to take his own meetings,” she sneers at him.

“Neither did I, but life sneaks up on you. And I owed Marcel a favour.”

They sit in charged silence for a moment. His fingers inch across the table to where her fists are tightly clasped. “Caroline,” he barely whispers.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Try and have a conversation with the woman I love-”

“ _Love?_ It’s been five years, Klaus, you don’t love me. You don’t _know_ me.”

“Nor do you get to tell me how I feel. I promised you I’d love you every day until I die and since, unfortunately for you, I am still living-”

She snorts, “So overdramatic.”

“Listen to me-”

“That was before,” she cuts him off.

Before he took her hands in his on their lived-in couch, cradling them as if they were something precious while he stuck the knife in her heart and pulled, leaving Chicago behind and her to bleed out. “Before you left me.”

“And if I told you I’ve regretted it every day since.”

“I’d say save your regrets. They mean nothing to me.”

“I tried to fix it. You’re the one who walked away that time.”

She flinches. He’s right. But it was never that simple and he knows that.

“I didn’t walk away, I couldn’t, there was nothing to walk away from. You saw to that. You tore my heart in two, completely out of the blue. Forgive me for not giving in the moment you started batting your lashes at me, again. I’m so sorry,” she drawls, her words sharp and bitter, “that I wanted someone who wasn’t so easily swayed away from me, and then came running back as if the damage could be undone by a simple apology. Maybe I want someone whose heart isn’t so fickle. Someone who will choose me and keep choosing me even when it’s hard.” 

His shimmering eyes reflect her own. Back when he’d first apologized, five months after their breakup, she’d claimed she needed to be on her own. To find herself outside of her relationships.

_“I was Matt’s girlfriend, then Stefan’s, then yours. I need to be by myself. I need to be more than a side part to someone else’s story.”_

_“You would never be that with me.”_

_“I didn’t use to think so either. But then you decided impressing your family was more important than me, if what you tell me is true.”_

_“My relationship with my step-father has always been complicated, I wanted his approval for once. In my head, he was trying to look out for me for the first time. He was trying to prevent my heartbreak further down the line.”_

_He had told her, for the first time, in broad strokes, of what Mikael was truly like. A man she had never met, and even with her soul fractured, she wanted to destroy this man for how he’d treated Klaus._

_“I am so sorry that your relationship with Mikael is so fraught. But doesn’t that just prove that we’re not right for each other?”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“You never felt you could talk to me about your dad, and I never felt I could talk to you about mine.” She was grasping at anything she could find. Her words were true, there was much left unsaid between them, but miscommunication is something they could work on, something they could fix._

_**Fix until he leaves again,** the dark voice had whispered. **It’ll all be roses until he’s had enough of you.**_

_No, she wouldn’t be blindsided again. She wouldn’t be made to feel ashamed of herself, or less than._

_He came to her, supplicant, his own heart beating and bleeding in his hands. So, she tossed it away like he had done to her._

She wipes away a small tear, holding his eyes and reliving the moment. She both regretted and didn’t regret it. She had found herself in many ways. She dated, albeit casually, found hobbies, met new friends. But Klaus was never a roadblock to those things. It was in the aftermath of their break-up, of realising the man she loved had chosen to leave her, that she felt unbound from life. 

He came back though, apologetic. Her pride and fear and the shattered pieces of her heart weren’t ready for him though. What would have happened if she’d just asked for time, instead of shutting him down completely? Her mind insisted history would have repeated itself, but her heart whispered something else.

_Shit._ She is at dinner, waiting for her husband-to-be to appear and pondering on whether not getting back together with her ex was a mistake. This line of thinking was the mistake. 

She was romanticising the situation too much. She wasn’t the 19-year-old girl who fell head over heels for her friend’s older brother. Love, she knew now, nearly a decade later, was a combination of the head and the heart. It was that monumental heartbreak that taught her that. If anything, she should be thankful to Klaus, for teaching her that lesson – that sometimes love simply wasn’t enough.

She’s shocked from any further rumination when Tyler finally shows up. 

“Sorry I’m late babe,” he says, pecking her on the cheek. “Klaus? What are you doing here, man?” There’s a falsity to his voice that has Caroline on edge. Did he know?

“Tyler Lockwood, pleasure to see you,” Klaus says, standing to shake his hand. “I’m filling in for my partner, Marcel Gerard.”

“Oh. _Oh wow_. You work for Hybrid Designs.” Yup. The tone of his voice basically confirmed he was full of shit. A quick glance at Klaus from the corner of her eye confirms he’s thinking the same. The smile on his face might read as geniality to anyone who didn’t know him well, but to those who did there’s a wryness there, and a calculating gleam in his eye. 

“I do. I hope this won’t be awkward, I can always leave, and you can reschedule with Marcel, if you’d prefer.”

“We’re all adults here, right? It was a long time ago.” Tyler says jovially, slapping Klaus on the shoulder.

“It was,” Klaus agrees, not sounding nearly as enthused as Tyler.

She can’t do this. Can’t sit here and be witness to this dick measuring contest, that in all fairness, Klaus didn’t start. She’s been working on a big article for the past two weeks, the constant screen time frying her brain and this situation has bumped her up from a headache to a full-on migraine. 

“I’m so sorry to do this,” she says, voice thin, “but my head is killing me, I’m just gonna head home.”

“Still?” Tyler says, placing the back of his hand to her forehead gently. 

“Yeah, it’s been a long day”

“Go on, it’s my fault for always dragging you to these things. I’ll see you at home.” She smiles at him for his kindness, gives him a quick peck and moves away when he tries to deepen the kiss and is instantly reminded of why she’s mad at him. 

It’s then the waiter appears carrying two glasses of champagne on a mirrored tray. “You can have mine, Tyler, toast to your new deal.” She raises an unimpressed brow at him so only he can see, an expression that says _‘you are so full of shit and the dumb act isn’t fooling me.’_

“It was good to see you again, Klaus.” His face is severe when she looks at him, contemplating her in a way she’s not comfortable with.

She forces herself not to stomp out of the restaurant like she so strongly desires, careful to keep her walk calm even if her soul is on fire. Twin gazes burning her back as she leaves. Her fiancée and former love of her life working together…what could possibly go wrong? 

**ii.**

Klaus stared at the cloudless sky beyond the Chicago skyline, drowning out the white noise around him determining the future of the Hybrid Design’s Chicago branch.

A mere ten minutes in her presence has reduced him to the heart-stricken fool he has refused to be for so long.

The one thing he can’t tune out though is the _clickclickclick_ of Marcel’s pen next to his ear. He’s trying to get a rise out of him and it’s working.

He kicks Marcel under the table and Marcel jabs the pen into his leg, hard, never once losing his gregarious smile. They’re discussing the first project the companies will be partnering on after signing an exclusivity deal, basically whatever big deals Moonstone locked down, Hybrid would be offered the chance to partner with them first, before anyone else, and vice-versa. It offered good branding for them both, and the branding opportunities that came out of a partnership would help in time to make more lucrative deals.

It was all horrifically boring. Klaus liked making money obviously, but he liked creating more. If they could all cut to the chase and admit they’re greedy bastards the sooner he can get to the part of his job he actually likes.

“Mr. Lockwood, your fiancée is here,” Tyler’s curly-haired assistant Liv calls through and grabbing Klaus’ attention.

“Hey babe, I brought you lunch,” Caroline says, waltzing in as if she owns the place. She looked carefree, or as carefree as is possible for Caroline, but the tense way she held herself gave her away. He can see her shoulders stiffen even further when she does a quick double take at his presence.

“Klaus,” her mouth gapes slightly before she plasters on a smile. “You must me Mr Gerard. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Mrs Lockwood, the pleasure is all mine,” he smiles back, a lot more genuinely. 

“It’s Miss Forbes actually.” 

Marcel’s grin impossibly widens. “My mistake.”

_Mistake, my arse._ Klaus had never been all that open about his feelings towards Caroline. Rebekah only knew because she inadvertently threw them together when she goaded him into showing her friend from high school around Chicago after she got into college there. Little did Klaus know that the bubbly girl who bounded up to him would become the most important person in his life. 

Marcel had found out about Caroline from Rebekah though, and after the small fiasco at dinner, Klaus felt it pertinent for their business to come clean to Marcel about their full history. 

Marcel was either toying with him or trying to be encouraging by calling Caroline ‘ _Mrs Lockwood’_. He wasn’t sure which.

“If I’d known you were in a meeting I would have dropped my later, or brought more food,” Caroline says, clapping her hands as if she’s just _delighted_ by the turn of events.

“I got my schedule all wrong,” Tyler says, the insincerity pouring off him in waves. “Would you guys excuse us for just a minute?” 

Klaus watches as Tyler guides the tightly coiled Caroline to the adjoining meeting room, visible through the glass pane doors.

He had seen this tense Caroline before, many a time. During finals, or before job interviews, the days leading up to her mom getting the five year all-clear from her doctor. This rigidity was a passing thing, not a state of being.

He’d loved to see the evolution of her, from the girl projecting confidence, unsure of her place, to the woman who walks in and knows she deserves to be there. There’s no doubt she feels comfortable in the high scale office of her fiancée, but there’s something obviously wrong. He can’t help feel a little guilty, his reappearance can’t be helping things but at the same time he can’t help but be a little glad. Would there be tension in her relationship if she had no feelings for him still whatsoever?

He hadn’t come back for the sole purpose of wrecking her relationship. When he and Marcel decided to start a second branch stateside, Chicago was the only option. It had been years and he thought that Caroline might be ready to give him a shot.

When he put his mind to something, he achieved it, no matter how long it took him. When Caroline had rejected his apology, he knew there to be some truth in her words. She had been so young when they’d gotten together and hadn’t experienced much life outside of him. To him, that would always be an adventure they could take together but he understood the fear in her words. He had never given up on them, simply put it on pause. They would find their way back to each other, he’d make sure of it. He just never thought she’d be engaged when they did.

Caroline was not a cheater; they both shared a possessive streak. Not the ‘ _you can’t go out with your friends without me type_ ’ but a more mutual agreement that they were each other’s and no one else’s. Some might simply refer to that as your run of the mill monogamy, but they were both a little intense about it, got off on the sense of belonging to one another. 

He didn’t want her to cheat on Tyler, he wanted her to see that she deserved more, deserved everything. And after that, yes, he wanted her to think that he deserved her. 

He’d kept up with her career, she was writing for a teen website, authoring articles on feminism and beauty and gossip and art, showing a wide range of her talent. For a few years he’d only had vague ideas of where she was working, figuring it was better for him to take a step back for a while. He may have spent the last week binge-reading years-worth of her words. 

Tyler had made some subtly condescending comments at their _overly-falsely-friendly_ dinner about her career. How she wanted to branch out on her own, that was unwise to Tyler given that her main experience was writing for teen girls, a demographic he obviously didn’t think could engage with interesting writing. 

The only reason Klaus could come up with that Tyler would think that, aside from being a dick, was that he had never read any of Caroline’s writing, which was as brilliant and full of life as she was. But the Caroline he’d seen, if only briefly, these past two times, was not a woman radiating happiness of her upcoming nuptials. The only thing she radiated was discomfort and hidden anger. Most surprisingly, the anger wasn’t all directed at him.

He takes a moment to revel in her. A pink sundress, still a favourite style of hers he sees, and wedged heels that make her long legs devilishly longer. Her hair is loose and curly today, not like the tight chignon of the previous week. He remembers the long nights of running his hands through her hair, fisting it until she moaned and begged for more, sitting on the couch twirling it around his fingers as she studied on the floor in front of him. He could almost smell the Christmas cookie candles she would burn all year round in their apartment. It drove him crazy, one of their biggest fights was over ridiculous candles of all things. But they made her happy, so he relented. It became one of their inside jokes, that they almost burnt the house down arguing over her seasonal candles.

He’s clearly been revelling a moment too long when Marcel kicks his shin and mutters out the side of his mouth, “We should probably leave.” That’s when Klaus takes in the expression on Caroline’s face, the tight smile, frowning forehead, as she talks to Tyler. They’re speaking in hushed whispers, but it’s obvious to him that she is far from pleased with Mr Lockwood. 

Marcel stands up and shakes Matt Donovan’s hand – Klaus will still swear that he’s never met this man before today – before excusing them until their next meeting.

“You guys are leaving?” Tyler cuts in, walking back towards the conference table from the corner he’d sequestered himself and Caroline in.

“Yeah,” Marcel says, using that charm of his to get them out of awkward situations, “I think we’ve gone as far as we can today. We can meet up next week and get a few more things locked down.”

“You know, since you guys are new in town,” Klaus resists the childish impulse to bite at Tyler that this was _his_ city first. “You could come along to our engagement party this Saturday.”

Klaus isn’t sure if he is suffering from sudden on-set deafness or if the room really is that quiet. 

“It’s black-tie but aside from that it’ll be pretty casual, a lot of people there, what are a few more? Marcel, you can bring the wife, and Klaus if you have anybody…,” his eyes cut to Caroline, staring into middle distance and clenching her jaw.

“Klaus has gotten used to being the third wheel to me and Rebekah over the years,” Marcel says, chuckling. “Things are so busy right now, you know, with setting everything up but definitely have your assistant send over the details and we’ll see if we can make it work.”

After much handshaking and manly shoulder slaps – that Klaus gets through without rolling his eyes once thank you very much – they walk to the elevators, alongside Caroline who opted not to stick around and eat with Tyler.

“Meeting to go to?” He asks, trying to fill the charged silence as they wait.

“No, I’m working from home today.”

“What are you working on?” Marcel asks, a lot less awkwardly than he had been.

Klaus keeps quiet as they chat, enjoying just listening to Caroline talk about something she’s passionate about, in a few short minutes she’s transformed back into the passionate, ebullient woman he knows. It only further proves to him that her relationship is not bringing out the best in her. That’s all he ever wanted for her, even when he went about it the wrong way.

They dawdle a bit once they reach the sidewalk, Caroline turning to leave then turning back.

“You really don’t have to come–” she starts, somewhat apologetically.

“If you don’t want us there, please say, it’ll be absolutely no offense–” Marcel responds.

“That’s not what I meant. I just…don’t feel pressured just became Tyler asked you to.”

“Tyler couldn’t make me feel pressured even if he tried, sweetheart.” Klaus blurts out before he can stop himself.

“Okay,” she scoffs, eyes rolling skyward. “It was really nice meeting you, Marcel. Tell Rebekah hi from me.”

“I will, great meeting you too.”

With a slight wave, she heads off down the street. Marcel’s head swivels from her retreating figure to Klaus and back a few times. 

Finally settling back on Klaus, Marcel beams, teeth so bright Klaus thinks they might actually twinkle. “Oh, we are _so_ going to that party.”

Klaus doesn’t want to ruin what will be a big night for her, but nor does he want to see her flounder with someone who isn’t her biggest champion. 

The closer they get to the wedding, the harder it will be for Caroline to walk away. She’s always had, or at least always use to have, a fear of letting people down. The last thing he wants is to see her stuck. If he only has so many chances to be around her, then he has to take them.

“Yes, my friend, I suppose we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part 2 still to come!


	4. unfinished business (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sequel to previous chapter

**iii.**

Tyler shuffled around behind her, getting ready, as Caroline sat at her vanity and put in the new pearl earrings he had bought her. They were beautiful, obviously expensive, and not at all the symbol of apology he wanted them to be.

The fight after he invited Klaus to their engagement party was intense.

“Why would you do that without asking me?”

“I don’t see what the big deal is. Why do you care so much?”

“Oh, I don’t know Tyler, maybe because you don’t invite exes to your engagement party. Are you going to ask him to walk me down the aisle next?” Caroline scoffs.

“Do you still love him?”

_Well, he went right for the jugular._ She takes a deep breath, wanting to be honest but not hurtful.

“A part of me will always love him,” she says gently.

“That doesn’t really work for me, Care. Cause a part of me doesn’t still love Vicki Donovan.”

“It’s not like anything’s going to happen. He broke my heart, you know that. He wanted another chance and I didn’t give him one. But nothing will change the fact he was my first love.”

“I thought Stefan was.”

“Stefan was…puppy love. In hindsight, it was nothing. Klaus and I went through so much together, he taught me so much about myself and I’ll always be grateful for that but then he walked away and it took a while but I accepted that. I just don’t understand why you’re doing this. Are you trying to punish me for something?”

“I’m not punishing you, Care.”

“Then what?”

He paces back and forth, running his hands through his dark hair. “Do you even want this?”

_“Do you?_ Or am I just a really nice trophy for you to carry around on your arm? I have ambitions too, but you treat them like they’re nothing.”

From there came explosion upon explosion of old fights they never sorted out and deeply held resentments, both cried and hugged and promised to do better. The next day Tyler called in to the office and they stayed in bed, the earrings were presented to her that evening.

When she thinks about it though, they never resolved a thing. They resolved it on the surface, as they always do, but aside from their make up session, things went right back to the way they were – Tyler more in love with his work than her, and her feeling disregarded.

Perhaps she’s being too harsh. Change can be gradual, and with the engagement party looming, they both have been really busy.

_You’ve thought these things before, and you will again if you keep doing nothing about how unhappy you are._

Caroline stares out the window of their chauffeured car as they drive through the city. It’s a night for lovers, it seems, as countless couples pass by. Young ones still in the throes of passion stop on street corners to kiss, not caring for the obnoxiousness of it. She can’t be annoyed by it, that’s how it should be when you’re in love. Stopped at a red light, she sees an older couple saunter by, holding hands and by the looks of it are bickering. In between barbs, the older gentlemen brings his wife’s hand up to his lips and kisses it casually. Her heart aches at the utter ease of it.

If things were as fine as she pretended they were, then this would be the part where she grabbed Tyler’s hand and pointed them out, tease him about how that would be them one day. She doesn’t.

The longer they drive, the more anxious she gets. This should be an exciting time, but she’s noticing how often recently she’s been comparing how she should feel to how she actually feels.

Tyler picked the venue, wanting to surprise her. She had picked decorations, which really got her Type-A personality in a twist, not knowing what type of place she was choosing décor for. They’re heading for the waterfront, for a panicked moment she thinks he might have chosen the planetarium.

She loves it there, but in the trove of her memories that she keeps locked away, that’s always where she thought she and Klaus would get married.

_Really not the time to be thinking of your ex._

Thankfully, they drive past, and she tucks her old secret wishes away.

Turns out that Tyler picked out a converted warehouse. Exposed brick with crystal chandeliers hanging from the exposed beams. The venue is nice, lovely even, but not to her taste. The décor she’s chosen looks out of place there, there’s no continuity, no sense of belonging.

As they go to greet their guests, the tedious tones of a violinist hits her hears. “I got the band from _Cotillard’s_ ,” Tyler says excitedly into her ear. “I figure if they go down well tonight then we can book them for the wedding too.”

It doesn’t escape her notice that he cares more about how their guests like the band than how much she likes the band. If he’d ever enquired, he’d know she doesn’t like them. At all.

She’s in a daze as she shakes hands and hugs people she barely knows. It hits her then that many of the friends she made in this city have left for other places, - at best she has warm acquaintances – that the life she thought she’d built here has been subsumed by Tyler as she greets countless of his work friends. Her mom hadn’t been able to take the time off work with such short notice, Bonnie’s flight was cancelled, Kat was travelling and Elena is so busy with medical school. The whole thing feels like a Lockwood affair, like she’s the side accessory to his accomplishment, not his partner in life.

She’s going to find herself a drink when a familiar voice accosts her. “Finally developed a fashion sense, I see?”

Turning she sees the very welcome face of Rebekah, Klaus’ younger sister, her old friend and the whole reason she and Klaus ended up together.

She’d been 18 and new to the city, the only one of her friends attending college in Chicago. Rebekah had convinced Klaus to show her around and help her out. They’d just been friends at first, she was still with Stefan at the time, technically. They participated in the same conversation and came out with two different conclusions. Caroline thought they were attempting long distance. Stefan did not. After the whole pseudo-cheating malarkey with his new girlfriend Ivy, her and Klaus grew closer. He was a rock during her time of need and supported her getting out there and moving on.

She hadn’t just lost Klaus when they’d split up, she lost Rebekah too.

Caroline throws her arms around the blonde, Rebekah squeezing her back just as tightly. That’s the thing about Rebekah, it’s hard to win her loyalty but once you have it, there’s nobody better to have on your side. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“Missed you too, Caroline,” she pulls back and fixes Caroline’s hair. “Now enough of all that soft stuff, how’ve you been?”

As they gossip and catch up, giggling like they used to at sleepovers, she notices Marcel and Klaus standing by the stylish chrome bar – completely contrasting her delicate floral décor but she’s over it, really – Klaus keeps stealing glances at her.

“You should talk to him,” Rebekah nudges her.

“I should talk to my ex at my engagement party? That’ll go down a treat.”

Rebekah gives her a long look, but instead of saying what’s clearly on her mind she only inquires as to how she met Tyler.

**//**

She’s only been with Tyler and his associates – _seriously who invites business acquaintances, at best, to an engagement party_ – for a few minutes before she finds an excuse to escape.

It doesn’t speak highly of the company that she was already looking around for Rebekah, who only went to mingle five minutes ago, or even Marcel, who she barely knows, for a reason to leave the mundane conversation. Turns out she didn’t need a good reason, she quietly excuses herself to get a drink and the men nod somewhat dismissively, not missing a beat in their conversation about cement suppliers or whatever it is they were talking about.

Leaning on the bar, waiting for the bartender’s attention, she sees Klaus approach from the corner of her, she wonders if he’s just been waiting to speak to her.

“Caroline,” he murmurs, his voice rolling over like a balm to soothe her anxieties. A natural reaction to him she’s never been able to help.

“Klaus,” she responds shortly.

“You look beautiful this evening.”

She stands up straight, flattening any wrinkles in her red velvet dress, looks him in the eye. “Thank you,” she says, genuinely. A lot of people have told her how nice she looks tonight, how lucky she is, what a wonderful couple her and Tyler make, but she didn’t know these people and their compliments came across as awkward niceties as opposed to anything real. She knows Klaus means it.

“Wouldn’t think you’d choose a place like this?” And just like that her goodwill towards him is gone.

“Why? Are my tastes so basic to you?”

“Not at all, love.” He laughs easily. “It just doesn’t seem very…you.”

“Maybe you just don’t know me anymore.”

He smirks, ignoring the barb. “I certainly recognise these floral arrangements. They were always a favourite of yours. Seem a little out of place here though.”

“You’re the one who’s a little out of place here.”

He’s biting down on his temper at her blatant rudeness now, she can see the spark of anger in her eyes. It used to excite her a little, they always gave as good as they got, never afraid to push each other’s buttons, to make each other better. That’s not even mentioning the make-up sex.

_Focus, Caroline._

It’s been years since they were together, since they’d done this and she missed it, missed him even as she pushed thoughts of him away and forged a new path. Yet she can’t help but push further.

“Your social life must be suffering for you to come to my engagement party.” _Fuck_. Why did she say that? She doesn’t want to know about his social life.

“You let me worry about that sweetheart,” he says, eyes blazing. “I’m not the one ignoring her fiancée and his… _friends_ ,” he says mockingly, as if he knows how shallow all the relationships on display tonight are.

“I came to get a drink,” she scoffs, overegging it a bit because he’s right to an extent. “I’m not ignoring Tyler.”

“Perhaps he’s the one ignoring you. I certainly would notice if my fiancée was speaking to her ex. He, however, is otherwise occupied.” His words sting now, the truth hitting home. She and Tyler should be celebrating together, instead she’s been running off whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“What is your problem?” She demands, ignoring, for the moment, she was the one who wanted him riled up.

“My problem is, as I recall years ago when I returned to try and fix my mistake, you told me you didn’t want to be an accessory to someone else’s life and look where you are!” Klaus whisper-yells at her.

“Is that why you came? To throw in my face what a failure I still am?”

Her words echo between the two of them. His face stricken, stunned, a little horrified by what she’s said. “Is that how you see yourself, sweetheart? A failure?” Klaus asks, his voice so much kinder now, eyes wide with sympathy.

“I can’t Klaus – I can’t do this.”

She heads for the fire exit as discreetly as possible. The blast of cold air as she exits brings a halt to the tears about to roll down her cheeks. She takes some deep breaths, calming herself.

_He wasn’t wrong. You’re just mad he said what you’ve been trying to ignore._

She should be grateful. Klaus never avoided hard truths with her, he never lied – aside from a few promises of forever. She should be even be grateful for the break-up. That heartbreak crushed the last of her hopeful expectations that life could be easy, if only you tried hard enough. But at the end of the day, he was a self-made millionaire’s son and she was the sheriff’s daughter. Might make for a cute country song but it sure as shit isn’t reality.

She leans against the brick building and looks up to the sky, letting the expanse of the stars, of a galaxy so infinite and bigger than herself, bring her back to a state of calm.

It’s what _they_ would do. Whenever Caroline got panicky about finals or job hunting or the endless future ahead of her, Klaus would either take her to the roof of their building, or out for a walk late at night. Intertwining the fingers loosely, they’d stroll around and he’d make her laugh at silly things until she’d forgot what it was that worried her.

Just once, she wishes she could do something without being reminded of him. She went years without his presence being so obtrusive in her life. She thought about him, of course, but not like this. Now every book she reads, every restaurant she visits, every song she hears reminds her of him.

The door creaks open again. There’s no need to look and see who it is.

“Less than a minute in my presence and you’re already running away. If I took it personally it might hurt my feelings,” Klaus says, strolling towards her casually, holding two glasses of champagne.

“Maybe you should take it personally.”

He doesn’t respond, just leans next to her, hands her a glass and looks up at the stars.

“Beautiful night out.”

“It is.”

“Why did you really come, Klaus?” She asks wearily.

“I came because I wanted to see you. I came because I wanted to tell you not to marry him.”

“So I can what? Marry you instead?”

“Maybe one day. If you’ll have me. But that’s not my only reason. You’re not happy, its plain to see.”

She stands straight and gets in his face, “Don’t presume-”

He cuts her off. “If this is such a happy union then why aren’t you in there, hmm? If I am so irrelevant to you and your existence, then why do I see more life and passion in you when you’re fighting with me than I have since we reunited two weeks ago?”

“You are so goddamn arrogant, you know that?”

Klaus stands straight now too, their faces only inches apart. “I do, love.”

“You don’t know me or my life, Klaus. You don’t get to waltz back in and pretend that you do.”

“I know that, love. I’m asking you to let me get to know you again. To forgive me. To let me try.”

“I’m not falling for this again!”

“Falling for what?”

“All your pretty words, your promises of forever. They mean nothing,” her voice cracks and she struggles to swallow back tears. “I believed them, wholeheartedly. And they meant _nothing.”_

His mouth gapes for a moment, but he says nothing.

“How am I ever supposed to trust a word you say ever again?”

“I’ll prove it to you, for as long as you need. But don’t stand there and pretend I’m the only one who wants this. I know you, Caroline. So, I know, no matter how hard we try, that no one else will ever make us feel how we make each other feel. We could both marry wonderful people tomorrow, but they will never make us as happy as we made each other.”

“If you know all this then why did you leave me?” She practically yells.

“Because I was an idiot. Because for once I wanted my father’s approval and leaving you was the only way I knew how to get it,” he pleads with her, desperation coating his voice.

“Because I’m lesser than you, and I don’t deserve you.”

“No. Never. He just…he’s always had a way of getting inside my head. Mikael he’s,” he cuts off, looking distressed for a moment. “He’s poison and he has a way of infecting other people.”

She looks deep into his eyes, and sees the pain there, the agony of an unloved son. She doesn’t understand it to the extent that he does clearly, but she knows what it is to be unwanted, recognises it clear as day in Klaus.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Klaus laughs a little.

“Yeah,” she downs her champagne. “Oh. I didn’t get it before.”

“I told you years ago,” he says tiredly.

“You told me vaguely that Mikael wanted someone better for you and you foolishly agreed. You didn’t… _show_ me.” She says, inarticulately but he seems to get what she means, as he usually does.

“I was still dealing with it, coming to terms with cutting him out.”

“How’s that going?”

“Pretty well. It’s tough when my siblings still talk to him but none of them force our interactions.”

“Not even Finn?” She recalls him complaining about the eldest Mikaelson incessantly.

“No,” he chuckles. “Not even Finn.”

“Will wonders never cease.” She teases half-heartedly.

“I have a confession to make.” Klaus exhales the words, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden.

“Okay?”

“I always thought,” he looks down, swallows hard, looking back at her with raw, pained eyes, “I always thought we’d get married down here, by the water. At the Adler Planetarium. You loved it when we visited for the anniversary event.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. After the Celestial Ball.”

“That was a wonderful night.”

“It was.”

They stand in silence, not touching, just looking. She lets herself smile at him, a small, kind smile, one she hasn’t gifted him in so long. She hasn’t wanted to until now. Until the reminder of how perfect for one another they were once.

The music trickles from inside. He takes her glass and his and sets them down, then offers her his hand. “May I have this dance, Miss Forbes?”

She doesn’t think twice, grasps his hand. “You may.”

For a few minutes – or maybe ten, she can’t tell when one song ends and another begins, they sway together, Klaus teasing her about her dancing going downhill. When they finally separate, she asks him about his work, not wanting to go inside just yet.

Caroline’s told herself for a while that ignoring a lot of what your partner says is part of a long-term relationship, something she and Tyler are both guilty of, but she finds herself hanging on Klaus’ every word, genuinely interested to hear about his passions. She and Tyler had been like that once, but they’d lost it.

If you want to build a life with someone there will be rough patches that you have to fight through…but she and Tyler have only been together for two years. It’s a little soon to have lost interest in each other’s interests. She and Klaus for all their faults had never lost that.

_Mostly she really needs to stop constantly comparing them._

When she starts shivering its time to return to the party.

“I know you won’t believe me but I didn’t come here to try and mess things up for you,” Klaus says, standing at the fire exit, propped open by a loose brick.

“You’re the one who showed up implying my whole life is a disaster,” she mutters immaturely.

“I’m implying, _stating_ actually, that you deserve a partner who sees you for all that you are. Someone to know you as an equal, how could you be anything else?”

“I don’t know what to do, Klaus.” She says, trying to be as honest as he’s been tonight. “It seems no matter how hard I try, my life never works out the way I plan.”

“Life rarely does, in my experience. I never expected to fall for the green friend of my little sister. I never expected I’d act a fool and let her go. When life starts to crumble around you, leaving you lost and confused, you have to think about what you want most, what is the one thing you can’t live without and then there’s only one thing to do.”

“What?”

“Take a chance.”

**//**

The rest of the night is a blur of false smiles and confused thoughts, and she doesn’t see Klaus for the rest of the evening.

It’s only when her and Tyler get home that she realises he noticed she was missing.

“I saw you laughing with him,” he says immediately after the door shuts behind him.

No need to specify who he means. “So?” Honestly, she thought he’d be more annoyed about the dancing.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like that. Not once. If I have, I didn’t notice which is a problem all of its own.”

She doesn’t even remember what Klaus said, some goofy comment about what a wonderful dancer he was in comparison to her, a blatant lie. When she stops fighting him, she can’t help but have fun with him.

“I guess we have a lot of problems,” is all she says.

“I get that there’s a lot going on right now,” Tyler starts.

“It’s not about being busy, Ty. We’re taking all these steps without asking if it’s what we really want, or what we just think we want.” She starts pacing in their living room. “This is marriage. If we do it right, it’s for life. It’s a huge risk.”

“You know in your heart, Caroline, whether or not something is worth the risk.”

Tyler was right she did know. She’d been delaying the truth for a while now and it had only hurt them both. And now she knew what she had to do.

**iv.**

Klaus had been staring at the plain packaging boxes for five minutes when another customer bumping past him brought him out his fugue state. This kept happening. He’d be going about his day when his brain decided to go on a trip down memory lane of every mistake he’s ever made.

He’s tried not to be the sort of person who dwells in regrets. Has he always been an upstanding citizen? No but he wasn’t about to let that ruin his life.

Ever since the night of Caroline’s engagement party though, he’d been contemplating one specific mistake more than he ever has before, which is really saying something.

He would always remember the look in her eyes. The utter betrayal. He had never been elitist, not with her. She would regularly roll her eyes at him, but he never measured their relationship in that way.

He could still recall living in the too small flat in London’s East End before his father’s business took off, who was he to judge anyone’s beginning?

Still, though, after a lifetime of feeling like an imposter within his own family, Mikael’s approval had become his green light. It was a sickness; he could see clearly now. But at the time, though the hardest thing he had to do, the appeal of Mikael’s acceptance was impossible to turn down.

It took him not a full day to realise the gravity of his mistake, but like the stubborn fool he was, he tried to keep up appearances. Yes, he was sad, but not devastated, was the front he put on for his family. Better to end things now before they get even more complicated. He’s doing her a favour really, by setting her free of all the familial expectations.

Rebekah and Kol didn’t buy a word of it. When he tried to fix his mistake, he was told he was too late.

He never believed that fully though, thought she just needed time to grow and learn, and would never begrudge her that. He thought in the end it would be good for them, for her to be as sure as him that being together was what she wanted. He just needed to bide his time.

He’d went back to Paris, where he had a position at one of the most prestigious art schools in the world but found he couldn’t enjoy it. He’d intended to stay there for at least three years, a position like that didn’t come to people as young as he very often, but instead he finished his year there and went to New Orleans to create something new, to become the kind of man he dreamed of now that he was out from under Mikael’s thumb.

So many of his siblings deciding to join him in New Orleans was both a blessing and a curse. He loved them deeply, but he didn’t love their interventions in his life. Kol would regularly chide him for his poor decisions, new and old, Rebekah would make passive aggressive and just regularly aggressive comments while defending him against anyone who would dare do the same, but Elijah was the worst of all. Elijah wanted to play matchmaker. 

Elijah’s idea of a good woman for him were simpering, ingratiating annoyances, not worth his time.

He loved his brother with all his might, but they simply did not agree on what was good for Klaus, what made him happy. Maybe if he hadn’t kept his relationship with Caroline locked away, confined to their safe space in Chicago, his brother would see that the only person he achieved that happiness with was Caroline.

There were so many things he should have done differently the first time round, he was realising.

Marcel told him just a few days after the party that he’d heard from someone who’d heard from someone else that Caroline and Tyler were done, the engagement was off, much to Carol Lockwood’s embarrassment. He’d hoped to have heard from her, but it’s been a month now and there hasn’t been a word.

It’s not like he expected her to jump from Tyler to him, but he thought they’d made progress that night. A month of overthinking has him believing maybe it wasn’t progress, but closure.

For years, he had always believed in the back of his mind that he could fix it, if only he tried hard enough. But the look on her face when she thought he was insulting her as some trophy wife has been on replay for at least the last week and now he’s starting to believe that he’s destined to unintentionally hurt her. If that’s the case then it’s better they don’t get back together, he’d rather her happy without him.

That’s partially why he needs to leave Chicago, at least for the time being. He doesn’t want to give up on her, on them, but this city has become a memory box for him, as dramatic as it sounds. He can’t go anywhere without being reminded of what he had and lost, Hybrid Designs had other branches he could see to, could go to a new city and build up a new one. That would be a good distraction.

He still doesn’t believe it’s fully over between him and Caroline, can’t believe it. But if he’s in for a long wait as the optimist in him thinks he ought to go be productive. The pessimist in him thinks he’s skipping town to avoid his pain head on, but what does that bastard know anyway?

Mostly he thinks he should have stayed at home with a bottle of gin for this mental processing, instead of standing in a random Home Depot aisle.

Grabbing an assortment of boxes, he heads for the checkout but stops in his tracks when he feels eyes on him. Turning around, a few aisles over, is the subject of his thoughts.

Make-up free and hair tied back in a loose bun, Caroline looks as divine as ever. His feet start making their way towards her before his brain can think it through. She’s smiling at him, at least. That must count for something.

“Hi,” she says quietly when he reaches her.

“Hello love,” he replies just as softly, like he’s talking to an easily frightened animal.

“How’ve you been?”

“Keeping busy with work. How have you been? I heard, you know, about you and –”

“I’m fine. Good actually. It was for the best.”

His eyebrows rise. “You think so?”

“I do.” A beatific smile spreads across her face and she looks down to the boxes in his arms. “What are those for?”

“Oh, well I um…I’m moving. Back to New Orleans.”

“ _Oh_.” It might be his wishful thinking that there’s a flash of disappointment before she holds a neutral expression. “Didn’t you just get here?”

“Yes, but we have quite a few branches, so I’m needed elsewhere.” He shakes his head, never enjoying lying to Caroline. “Not needed, per se, but it’s always good to check in. Marcel will stay here for a while, hire people he trusts to uphold our standards and then he’ll probably re-join me in New Orleans.”

“That’s great,” she responds, not at all enthusiastically.

“What are yours for?” He asks her, noticing the few boxes under her arms.

“I’m finally moving out of me and Tyler’s place. He let me stay while he lived at Matt’s, gave me some time to sort things out. The apartment was always more him than me, anyway. I’m going to be renting for a few months from a friend of a friend who’s travelling, so I have a little while longer to find a more permanent solution.” She rambles and her eyes dart around as she speaks to him, Caroline always rambles when she’s nervous. What does she have to be nervous about right now though? “In fact, I should probably go and get packing before the day disappears on me. It was nice seeing you again.” She stops long enough to take a breath and finally look at him, eyes wide and forlorn. “Goodbye, Klaus.”

She gives him a brief kiss on the cheek and rushes past him. He tries to find her at the checkout but can’t catch sight of her.

A part of him says that she was sad to know he was leaving, but the other part of him knows better, knows he’s tried the positive way of thinking before when it comes to their relationship, when he’d come back years ago with his apology ready and his heart in his hands. It didn’t work out then, why would it work out now? Caroline has always been a go-getter. Surely if she wanted him, she’d come get him.

**v.**

The humidity is really ruining the chic, carefree look she was going for. Now her hair is frizzing out of its casual bedhead perfectly crafted waves, and her _no-make-up make-up look_ is slowly melting off her face.

It’s been two months since she’d seen him last, two months spent deciding what she really wants in life. Two months in which she barely mourned the loss of her relationship with Tyler, because as they both discussed the night of the break-up, the good things about their relationship had dissipated long before they realised.

She’d been working up to phoning Klaus before he left. Didn’t think he’d move across the country in the meantime.

It made sense though. He had been so sure about them while she waffled and wavered. She didn’t regret it, had needed the time to really think things through but she understands his need to get away. The past few months living alone and away from outside influence really helped her sort things out.

She wanted _more._

She’d quit her job. As much as she loved it, she wanted to create something for herself, a website where she could explore the interests she had in the modern, political world. A place where she could write what she’s passionate about and hire people who feel the same, a place to boost voices that need to be heard.

Caroline was ambitious, that was never going to change. But the realisation she didn’t have to be in Chicago to achieve her dreams changed everything. Chicago was the place she became the woman she is, her experiences there, with and without Klaus, had made her. She never realised the attachment she held to the city, and letting it go, at least for the time being was more difficult than she thought. In her carefully laid plans, she’d always stayed there, and she’d always had such fear or life not turning out according to those plans.

But being scared had only stifled her, and though it’s one of the most difficult things she’s ever done, it was time to take a leap.

First things first, she spoke to Rebekah, trying to subtly see if any of her doubts – would Klaus actually want her if she turned up, had he moved on – had any truth to them.

“Don’t be a bloody idiot, Caroline. You know if you show up at his door, he’ll be yours,” Rebekah had said, rolling her eyes.

It was in this transitory time, moving things into storage, packing up what she could carry, that she thought how hard it must have been for Klaus coming back to Chicago.

How would she have felt to run into him and find him engaged to another, planning a whole life without her? No wonder he had doubts and had to leave town. It would have crushed her.

Last time, Klaus had come to her. Now it was her turn to chase him down.

So, here she was, in Nola, address in hand.

She had the taxi from the airport drop her off at a bar first, thinking a drink would calm her nerves a little.

The bartender, Josh, had been friendly and funny, helped get her out of her own head. “You came all this way to woo a man? That is so romantic.” He said dryly as she was leaving the bar.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“I’m a local, maybe I know him?”

“Klaus Mikaelson.” The way Josh’s jaw dropped still had her giggling as she walked the streets to Klaus’ house. Maybe she’d go back for a drink sometime.

The ostentatious M knocker on the front door had her rolling her eyes. “Seriously, what a drama queen,” she muttered to herself.

There was no answer after a minute, so she kept picking up and dropping the heavy M with little grace, sure to annoy Klaus.

“Coming, coming! You can stop with the bloody knocker. Can’t a man take a daytime kip without being harassed in his own home?” She heard him from behind the door, getting clearer as he approached.

The door swung open with ease, and the rage fell of Klaus’ face immediately, replaced by utter shock. He looked paler than usual, wan, and overworked.

“Hello, love.” Caroline said, in a bad British accent, immediately regretting it and wincing. “Ignore that, that was dumb. Hi,” she attempted again.

“Hi…” Klaus said warily. “What are you doing here?”

“I have some things to say and I need you to listen.” He opened his mouth to acquiesce or decline? She doesn’t know because she starts speaking again before he can. “First of all, I don’t want to live in New Orleans.”

“Then you might have made a wrong turn somewhere,” he interrupts, drolly.

She points a warning finger at him. “Or maybe I do want to live here, or in Paris, or London, or maybe I want to go back to Chicago or Mystic Falls one day. I don’t know the exact future but I know the world is so huge and I want to actually live in it. I want to experience it and write about it.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” he says, shoulders straightening, a slight gleam coming into his eyes, as if he’s finally clocking on to why she’s here.

“I’ve spent so long overthinking every decision in my life, but you were so right that night. I just needed to think of what I wanted most and take a chance.”

He takes a step out the door. His eyes are wide, open, honest, and hopeful, but his jaw is set with an edge of caution. “And is this it? You…taking a chance?”

“Yes, because _this_ ,” she gestures between them, “terrifies me. The idea of having and losing you again, of you deciding you want something better, I don’t think I’d go through it a second time.” She wipes away a stray tear.

“It won’t happen again, I prom–”

“I trust you. I have my own weird issues, I’m sure you do too. But there’s no one else I want to work through them with. There’s no one I would rather drive crazy with my neuroticism more,” he chuckles, and she grabs his hands.

“I love you, Klaus. Take a chance on me.”

“Always.” He pulls her to him and they’re kissing like isn’t years between them, like they haven’t put each other through pain and heartbreak. There has, of course, and that’s something they’ll need to reckon with, but in this moment, tears streaming down both her faces, the problems don’t seem so scary.

Delving her hand into his, it feels like yesterday they kissed like this on their old couch. No matter how hard she tried to kill it, the kind of love they have never dies.

He breaks away, gives her a few short but drugging kisses. “I love you, Caroline,” he says, lips on hers.

“Just to be clear,” she says in between kisses, reluctantly dragging herself from him, “I was serious about wanting to see the world. I know you love Nola, and I’d love for you to come with me but if you can’t because of work I understand

He gives her a cocky grin. “Sweetheart, Hybrid Designs is a wondrous success, and I built the place singlehandedly.”

“ _Singlehandedly with the help of Marcel_ ,” she adds on, scoffing at him and interrupting his self-satisfied flow.

“We have three branches, I’m sure I could start another one if we set up base elsewhere. Or maybe not, I think I’ve more than earned some holiday time.” He takes her face between his hands, a teasing grin on his face. “We’ll decide together love, take each day and life changing anxiety inducing decision as it comes.”

“Ok.” She grins back.

“Ok?”

“Yes!” she laughs, dragging his mouth back to hers. “ _Ok, ok, ok_ ,” she giggles, punctuating each with a kiss.

When he swings her up into his arms and crosses the threshold, she steps into her future, and for the first time, she goes without fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> targaryenkaz on tumblr


	5. the one where klaus gets high

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is posted elsewhere on ao3, but i want to keep all my tumblr drabbles together so adding it here as well to suit my organisational obsession

Caroline was waving the last of her fifth graders out the door when her phone buzzed in her desk drawer, _again._

Usually she turned her phone on complete silent while she was at work, but she’d made an exception today. Klaus, her new boyfriend of only two months, was having his remaining wisdom teeth taken out, after having a few removed the year before.

She’d wanted to go with him but couldn’t get the day off work, so settled for his overly serious older brother Elijah keeping her updated throughout the day.

His texts were as succinct as the man himself.

 **1.34pm** : _Going into procedure now._

 **2:28pm** : _Procedure went well. Niklaus in good health._

It wasn’t something she liked about herself, but she was, by nature, a worrier. A little more detail would’ve been nice.

Then, around fifteen minutes ago, her phone started buzzing incessantly. Elijah chose a real funny time to get chatty.

She rushes over to her desk and sees that it is once again Elijah. She’s not really in the mood to talk to the elder Mikaelson, has always had the feeling he didn’t approve of her. It’s not likely anything has gone wrong since he last texted, but she picks up just in case

 _“Caaaaarolineeee,_ ” A very familiar albeit slurred voice singsongs down the line.

“Klaus,” she muffles a laugh, “How are you feeling?”

“Top of the world, love. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing great now. Why are you calling from Elijah’s phone?”

“He took mine before I went for my procedure,” he garbles, procedure sounding more like _‘prooshedjure_ ’. “But he left his on the table, so I pretended to be sleepy and asked him to get me some ice chips and he left it behind,” Klaus giggles, actually _giggles_ as he says that.

Caroline has never seen, well _heard_ , Klaus giggle before. He makes her laugh a lot, it’s one of the reasons she fell for him, but he’s not a giggler by any means. They’ve known each other since attending grad school together and haven’t been dating for long at all but his humour has always leaned more in the sarcastic, dry direction than goofy.

She’s really, _really_ wishing she took the day off right about now.

“You just couldn’t wait to talk to me, huh?” She asks, teasing.

“Always. I always want to talk to you.” Klaus responds, sounding as serious as someone with a mouth full of gauze can sound.

Her cheeks warm. For someone with the reputation he has, he can be unbearably sweet at times.

“How are you feeling, really? Are you sore?”

“I have no idea, these drugs are bloody fantastic. I understand now why people like them so much.”

She can barely get her words out between muffled laughs, “I think this is the pathway to addiction they warn us against in health ed.”

He giggles, _again_. “That reminds me! That’s why Elijah wouldn’t give my phone back,” he says, sounding delighted at his nonsensical discovery.

“What do you mean?”

“He said I’d regret it later.”

“Regret what?”

“Saying I love you for the first time while I’m high.”

Oh. _Oh._

It’s not like it’s a complete surprise. She knew she loved Klaus early on, probably after their second date to the planetarium. They’d watched a display and he’d spent the whole time making her burst into inappropriate laughter and acted the perfect gentlemen at her doorway until she’d dragged him inside after her. Having known him for so long and spending a fair amount of that time trying to dislike him, it was like a flood of emotions rushed her.

Klaus had always been surprisingly open about his feelings, given his personality, but had never said those three words, or indicated towards them. She knew he was serious about her, but the anxious voice in the back of her mind reminded her of previous relationships where she was all in, only to discover her partner was not. She wouldn’t risk the pain of being shot down again, not even for Klaus.

While he was high, not even a barrel load of drugs could get him to say that to her if he didn’t mean it. She was wrong to compare what they had to past relationships. She had been cheated on, emotionally and physically, had felt disregarded, and often like the second choice with previous boyfriends. But she forgot the most important thing, they weren’t Klaus. He has always been a creature all to his own, a man of multitudes and contradictions. There was simply no comparison.

“Caroline? Did you hear me, love? I said I love you.”

“ _Niklaus, no._ ” She hears Elijah’s faint voice down the phone.

“Bugger off, Elijah, I’m talking to my girl.”

“How did you get into my phone?”

“Everyone knows your password is Katerina’s birthday, brother. You’re the most whipped man on the continent. On all the continents!” Klaus chuckles to himself but cuts off with a grunt. All Caroline can hear is muffled voices, and a few groans, one “ _Ow Lijah, that was bloody cruel_ ,” as Elijah presumably wrestles the phone from his inebriated brother.

“Caroline,” Elijah says, sounding as dignified as ever, but slightly out of breath. “My deepest apologies. I did warn Niklaus that telling the love of his life that he loves her for the first time over the phone while under the influence was not the way to go, no matter how much you mean it.”

“Umm,” she says dumbly, trying to process what he said but was getting stuck on a particular phrase. “Love of his life?”

“Oh dear,” she can picture him putting his head in his hands. “I’m apologising for him. I should be apologising for myself.”

“You’ve cocked it up now, brother,” she hears Klaus say, still laughing as if it’s the best day of his life.

“No need to apologise. I was just…surprised that he thinks that I’m,” _deep breaths Caroline, deep breaths_ , “The love of his life.”

“Well, of course. It was on his first trip to get his wisdom teeth taken out that he admitted it to me. I had to battle him to make sure he didn’t call you. I knew he meant it, but I didn’t think a lady he was only starting to get on the good side of, would have taken his declaration seriously.”

“Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have.”

“As you can guess, I came prepared this time.” Elijah lets out a softer laugh than she thought him capable of. “Not prepared enough, it seems.”

“No,” she chuckles. “But no harm done.”

“No?” He asks, sounding curious.

“No, I love your brother very much.”

“Well, that is excellent news.” She can hear the smile in Elijah’s voice. Maybe he wasn’t disapproving of her, just cautiously protective of his brother’s heart, and she couldn’t fault him for that.

“I’m taking him home soon,” he continues. “If you’d like to come see him.”

“I’d love that, can you put him back on just for a moment?”

“What was my dreadful brother saying to you?” Klaus’ mumbles in an accusing tone.

“He is _not_ dreadful. He was being very nice, asking if I’d like to come see you today.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah, I’ll come straight from work, I’ll probably beat you there.”

“And what will we get up to, Miss Forbes?” He’s going for sexy, but his speech is so slurred she can’t help but burst out laughing.

“No funny business, just cuddling.”

“I _do_ love cuddling.”

“I know, not that you’d ever admit it sober.”

“That reminds me again!” He says, sounding so boyish her heart hurts. “I said I loved you and you didn’t say anything…I did say it, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.”

“ _Say it back, pleeeeease_ ,” Klaus whines, once again in a singsong voice.

She grabs her keys from the desk and heads for the door, an irrepressible smile crossing her face.

“I’ll tell you when I see you.”


End file.
